In a multi-year deal announced yesterday, the airline will prominent throughout the Garden and the MSG Network, becoming the entity’s first “Signature Partner.”

“We are delighted to welcome Delta into the Madison Square Garden family as the new Official Airline across all of our divisions, and the first marketing partner tied to the upcoming Garden renovation,” said Hank Ratner, vice chairman, Madison Square Garden. “This is an exciting time to be a part of Madison Square Garden, and we will look to align with partners like Delta that share our vision for delivering great experiences and service to our fans and customers.”

The deal also includes a specialized name club in after the Garden’s renovation, scheduled for 2012.

To celebrate this new partnership, Delta and MSG will be launching a promotion offering fans the opportunity to win great seats at Madison Square Garden venues and on Delta flights in the upcoming months. Brand ambassadors will be around New York City and at Delta’s local terminals through Saturday, October 24th handing out scratch and win boarding passes. For additional information on the partnership and promotions, please go to MSG.com/delta.

And now for the bad: This is the second year in a row, she became a tourist after the first round.

Much like last year the 21 year-old former No. 1 took a one day exit at the US Open, this time losing to 52 ranked Kateryna Bondarenko in three sets, 6-2, 3-6, 6-7 (7).

“I created a lot of chances for myself,” Ivanovic said. “I’m really disappointed that I made a few mistakes in the important moments and my forehand let me down on a few occasions and obviously it hurts.

And it hurts her in the rankings as well. Last year, she was the No. 1 seed and in 2009 she fell to spots to No. 11. This Open is the cumulation of a bad year for the Serbian who just really couldn’t put it all together.

“I think it’s been, you know, as much as it hurts and was disappointing, you know, times so far, I feel I learned a lot from it,” she said. “I learned a lot about myself and you know, people around me and about what I have to do and in order to become a better player, because there was a point that, you know, I really trusted the team around me, so I didn’t question many things that were happening.

“Many times, you know, I didn’t know why I was doing certain things. So now we have, with the changes that happened, I’m more aware of certain things and more aware of the things that helped me get better. That’s obviously really good things.

“Now I know for myself what’s going to help me to improve, and you know, what kind of work it’s going to help me, rather than just rely 100% on a coach, because many times they can’t feel – all the time they can’t feel what I feel. That’s one thing that I feel I learned in last month or two.”

This time she lost top Bondarenko, who was nursing a “strained muscle” in her upper left leg, which she injured playing in Toronto. “She was wearing a wrap all game and it looked like it was aggravated by the end the match.

“It started to hurt more,” Bondarenko said. “Before the match it was okay but by the end it was more.”

Ironically as the match went on Ivanovic was the one that faltered. She won the first set 6-2, but then dropped the second 6-3. The Serbian was able to come back being down in the third to force a tie breaker, but could not withstand the Ukrainian’s will and determination.

“You know, 6-5 in the third and deuce I believe and I played great and set myself up and made the mistake, in the net every time,” said Ivanovic who is now 24-13 this year. “It’s a little frustrating. And then on match point, maybe it was wrong shot. Also, a few times I think I made a wrong shot selection, as well.

“Just also a little bit to do with confidence, just some of the shots I think weren’t the right shots but were not really coming. That was really frustrating.”

Now she will have some time to think about it and maybe take in the sights and sounds of New York. And don’t worry, after last year, Ivanovic knows the good places.

I have thought for a long time that Jeter, the player (not the “playa”) had the fortunate stroke of luck to be a good all-around shortstop playing in the world’s largest media market for the most famous team in the world.  Jeter was a singles hitter in an era when the sports’ best shortstops were guys like Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciapiarra, and Hanley Ramirez. These were players who could steal bases, field the position, had better throwing arms, hit for higher averages and last but not least, hit for power in ways Jeter could only dream. Along with Cal Ripken, the Baltimore Oriole shortstop from an earlier era, these were the shortstops who re-defined the position whereas Jeter, in my view, remained a very good player who knew how to play the game, fundamentally, better than most and play within his own talents, which were not as vast as the aforementioned players. He possessed and continues to have great instincts for the game, was an excellent base-runner who could steal a base for you when it was needed, could bunt with the best of them and hit the ball to the right side of the field to move the man on second over to third. He performed and continues to perform almost all aspects of the game very solidly day in and day out.

But, Jeter never re-defined the position of shortstop. He’s been more of a guy who continues to carry the torch for solid, winning baseball. Call him the Larry Bird of shortstops, as opposed to Michael Jordan. He’s never led the league in any significant statistic. He has only been a serious contender for an MVP award once in his career, 2006 when he batted .343. In my view, Jeter has been a career compiler, statistically-speaking who has been surrounded most of his career by the best team money can buy. And, his particular skill-sets have worked perfectly on those Yankee teams of the nineties and into the new millennium.

But, I’m starting to reevaluate Jeter. Maybe, he isn’t quite as overrated as I suspected. He is playing right now, on the team with the best record in the game, at a level that screams for national attention. In any comparison with the guys who play his position, maybe he is starting to look more like the kind of player you would prefer having on your team to those other power-hitting, athletically-superior shortstops.

Let’s take a look at the aforementioned top-rated shortstops of this era. We discovered in Rodriguez, possibly the most talented player in the game, a man who tends to shrink at the most pressured moments. His performance during playoff games, in comparison to Jeter leaves no doubt that Jeter is the money player when the games are more important. It also remains to be seen what impact, statistically, Rodriguez’ use of steroids has had on his career accomplishments. He does seem to have a slower bat this year, less power, less running speed. Time will tell on the questions surrounding A-Rod.

Garciapiarra, a great offensive star with the Red Sox in the nineties, has been derailed by injuries and has not had a productive full year since 2001. He’s barely hanging on as DH/pinch-hitter with the terrible Oakland Athletics, who the Yankees just defeated two out of three games in Oakland.

Ramirez, the young phenom with the Florida Marlins, is probably one of the top five players in the game today. Most general managers in baseball have gone on record saying if they were starting a team today, Ramirez would be their first choice to build with. But, he is only 25 years old and he needs to be a consistent performer on a year-in, year-out basis to be considered for greatness.

There have been other youngsters over the past 14 years since Jeter came up to the big leagues who have arrived on the major league scene with huge press notices, guys who were destined to usurp Jeter’s position as an All-Star-caliber shortstop. Whatever did happen to Jose Reyes, Jimmy Rollins, Stephen Drew, J.J. Hardy, Miguel Tejada, Troy Tulowitzki, the famous Bobby Crosby and the equally-famous Khalil Greene? All of these young shortstops were the next wave of great and talented shortstops who were going to wave goodbye to the aging Jeter as they left him in their dust.

Instead, Jeter, now 35, is having a phenomenal year. A season that Jeter observers, based on his somewhat declining skills of the past couple of seasons, would never have predicted. Offensively and defensively, he is playing as well as any player in the sport. He is exhibiting the same sorts of skills he always has possessed but given his age and the fact he’s playing in his 14^th big league season with lots of mileage (including more post-season games than any player in baseball history) on his body, his performance this season has been incredible. For a few years now, Yankee observers have been whispering every time Jeter goes into a batting or fielding slump that we are now watching the beginning of the inevitable descent of Derek Jeter into mediocrity or worse, average-ness. Those press box whispers, however, have been few and far between this season.

Jeter is hitting .331, fifth in the American League. He’s in the top ten in the A.L. in at-bats, runs scored, hits, stolen bases, and on-base percentage. The man doesn’t like to sit down to rest despite the fact he is playing a position requiring more athleticism and movement than any other position on the baseball diamond. He is leading a Yankee team of much younger players by example. The thinking permeating the Yankee clubhouse this season has been, “if the old man can do it every day, why can’t I?”

In the past nine games, including the seven played on the current Yankee road trip on the West Coast, Jeter is 20 for 36, including five games with at least three hits. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 20 hits were the most for Jeter over any stretch of 36 at-bats since 2003.

He is getting multiple hits in almost every game and spraying the ball all over the field.  The Yankees, now leading their rival Boston Red Sox by seven games in the East Division of the American League, are beginning to turn the pennant race into a non-event. Jeter has been the key, along with stronger pitching, particularly in the bullpen.

He still doesn’t lead the Yankees in runs scored, he still doesn’t put up power numbers (homers, doubles, triples), and he still will probably not get as many MVP votes as new Yankee first baseman, Mark Teixeira. The voters like those power numbers and Teixeira is going to be close to a forty homer, 125 r.b.i. kind of guy this year. As one wag recently wrote in Sports Illustrated, “I’ve always thought he was a terrific player. And I’ve always thought he was overrated, too. That’s a hard double to pull off.” That seems to be the dilemma in looking at Jeter’s career. How much of this has been based, solely, on Jeter’s skills on the field and how much of his reputation has been built by the media machine of New York City? It’s been a fair question to ask.

But, Jeter has re-opened many eyes on the importance of being a solid, reliable, highly-skilled shortstop in the pantheon of playing winning baseball, championship-level baseball. Sometimes, before you decide on a players’ ranking among his peers, you just need to take a second look.

Visit Scott’s site www.sportsreporters.com.

In the end, if the tournament concludes as scheduled in 18-14 months, one of the fighters is going to be crowned the best in the super middleweight division.  And for the sport of boxing to have one champion, you are asking for an impossible task, especially when five promoters get in the mix,

The SHOWTIME network, desperate for good fights and ratings, is feeling the heat because rival HBO Sports has the better fights and the premiere fighters. There was even talk, recently, that the network, a subsidiary of CBS Networks was losing money and considering televising less fights or getting out of boxing.

Besides, the welterweight division, in particular, is the premiere one in the sport and HBO seems to be doing fine with offering the best fights to the public without a devised tournament format to determine who is indeed number one.

“It began as an intriguing concept, and through a tremendous amount of hard work on everyone’s part, we are going to pull off one of the most exciting events in boxing history,” said Ken Hershman, Senior Vice President and General Manager of SHOWTIME Sports.

Perhaps to Hershman this may be exciting. His network needs something like this to draw interest, Boxing fans don’t need added confusion, more so more than a year to determine who the best is in a division that can’t rival the welterweights and lightweights.  The sport\ has enough alphabet champions and sanctioning organizations and this concept makes it more confusing.

You don’t draw more fans to the mix with more confusion, and despite what they were saying Monday, when was the last time boxing had one unified world champion in any of the divisions?   The round-robin tournament is scheduled to commence in October with venues to be determined.

Now take a look at the field and the first round match ups all scheduled for 12-rounds:

Carl Frotch (WBC Super Middleweight champion, 25-0, 20KO’s) of England) opposing Andre Dirrell (18-0, 13KO’s) of Flint Michigan, this for the WBC title, and probably the interest here because Dirrell gets a title shot and is one of the promising and exciting fighters that deserves exposure. Dirrell, 26 years old is a 2004 Olympic bronze medalist.

Jermaine Taylor (28-3-1, 17KO’s) the former middleweight champion from Little Rock Arkansas who has seen his career dwindle with recent tough defeats. So for Taylor, perhaps this tournament can put him back on the map. He opposes Arthur Abraham (30-0, 24Ko’s) of Germany who recently vacated his IBF middleweight championship to move up in class at 168.

And the interest for Taylor, and perhaps if you are a fan of this concept comes if Taylor should get by Abraham, because if he wins a possible return bout with Frotch is on the horizon in the tournament.  Back in April, Taylor faded late in his fight he was winning against Frotch and lost by TKO in round 12 and lost his chance at dethroning the 168-pomnd champion.

Mikkel Kessler (41-1, 31KO’s of Denmark, WBA super middleweight champion) opposes Andre Ward (19-0, 12 KO’s) of Oakland California for the WBA title. The 25-year-old Ward is the Olympic gold medalist and number one contender

So there it is. This is a tournament that is supposed to make a boxing fan content, and for the promoters involved, perhaps, a quicker way towards getting their fighters closer to championship prominence.  Listen to Lou DiBella, of DiBella Entertainment the former HBO executive who was itching at the chance for his fighter, Taylor to get another shot at Frotch.

“Everyone in this tournament starts with a clean state,” he said. “And believe me Jermaine Taylor is going to take advantage of that clean slate.  A loss to a champion gets you to another champion,” he commented also referring to how quickly this was put together and it is not easy getting five promoters at the same table to sign an agreement.

The flaws are some fighters are not in the mix of this, boxing is known for circumstances beyond control such as injuries to a fighter and weight issues. And the time process to crown a champion may be too long.  Fans don’t need to wait a year or more to determine who is the best because a network, SHOWTIME, needs to draw more interest with their boxing production.

Why isn’t top rated super middleweight, or middleweight contender Giovanni Lorenzo, the Domincian Republic native involved?  He has been calling for an opportunity to fight Abraham before the champion vacated his title. And Abraham will no doubt have his first round fight in Germany where he is unstoppable. The Garden would be a great venue for Lorenzo to highlight a card down the line with his Latino heritage.

Main Events, promoter of Lorenzo wound not get involved in the tournament which put their fighter out of the picture. Golden Boy Promotions of Oscar De La Hoya, Bob Arum of Top Rank and Don King, the other prominent promoters in the sport don’t need to get involved with a rival network they hardly do business with.

But for promoter Gary Shaw, who works hand- in- hand with SHOWTIME and for his fighter Dirrell, this is a perfect opportunity. “It’s the best of the best,” said Dirrell “Champion vs, champion.  I will bring a new element to the division and people will see what I am about,” he said.

The WBC has committed to make this three-stage situation happen and will honor all the fights and grant championships. “The sport needs a shot of adrenaline,” said DiBella. “This kind of event is what’s going to save boxing,” he added.

Maybe for SHOWTIME this offers some hope. The sports of boxing, though does not need more confusion and five promoters to make us wonder more: Who is the real champion?

GATTI THE WARRIOR: Arturo Gatti may not have been the best champion on record winning world championships in two weight classes at 130 and 140 pounds, but he was a warrior and a delight to fans.  Sadly, the 37-year old was found dead in Brazil Saturday and so another tragic ending to a great fighter,

Last week the boxing world was stunned to hear that another great champion, Alexis Arguello took his own life with an alleged self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest at his home in Nicaragua.  It seems this has become a common occurrence, great champions who gave us thrills in the ring and suddenly a tragic ending.

Gatti was a warrior who sold out the Atlantic City Convention Center each time he fought there. He is best remembered for the three epic fights against Micky Ward, two years back in 2002 and 2003, the last two held at the Convention Center.  Gatti won two of the three fights all on 10-round decisions.

And despite his reported out of the ring wild behavior, sometimes that has to be bypassed because of the great things he did in the ring. Gatti liked to have a good time and was always receptive to his fans and of course to the media who watched him throw punches at ringside.

So the sport has lost another legend. Gatti (40-9, 31 knockouts) gave us thrills and loved the sport and retired two years ago, July 14, 2007 with a loss to Alfonso Gomez by TKO in the seventh round, also in Atlantic City. That fight wasn’t his best and he knew it was time to leave the game.

There are no words to describe why fighters such as Arguello, and now Gatti have left us so soon. Perhaps it is a reflection for the society we are in. Because fighters know how to survive in the ring and when they leave the game survival becomes their biggest fight.

Rest in peace to another great champion and like Arguello we will toll the 10-count at ringside at the next fight.

E-mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com